Ohio State came to Ridder Arena unbeaten and ranked No. 1. On Friday night, No. 3 Minnesota beat them 6-2 to hand the Buckeyes their first loss of the season. On Saturday afternoon, Ohio State won the rematch 6-5 and left with a split.
Friday's game turned in the first 14 seconds. Adrianna Milani picked off a Buckeye pass on the forecheck and beat the goalie high on the blocker side for a 1-0 lead. Madison Kaiser scored next off a feed from Allard to make it 2-0. Chloe Primerano then added a power-play goal with 5 seconds left in the first period, and Minnesota took a 3-0 lead into the intermission.
Milani's second goal made it 4-0. Ohio State answered with 2 goals in the second period: Joy Dunne scored on the power play and Jenna Raunio cut the lead to 4-2. Minnesota didn't let it get any closer. Allard scored with less than 5 minutes left to make it 5-2, and Kaiser's second goal of the night finished the scoring at 6-2. Milani had 2 goals and 2 assists, a career-high 4 points. Primerano had a goal and 2 assists, and the Gophers scored 3 power-play goals.
"We kind of beat them at their own game," head coach Greg May said after the win. "There was literally no panic from them." May is in his first season running the program. He was promoted in March after 3 seasons as associate head coach under Brad Frost.
Saturday started the opposite way. Ohio State led 3-0 on a goal from Jungåger and 2 from Dunne. Maddie McCullough got Minnesota on the board in the second, and the Gophers scored 4 goals in that period. Bartz put the Buckeyes back in front 4-3, but Sarah Paul tied it 4-4 before the second intermission.
Paul scored again early in the third to give Minnesota its only lead of the day at 5-4. Ohio State then scored twice in less than a minute and held on to win 6-5. Paul had 2 goals, Emma Kreisz had a goal and an assist, Avery Hovland also scored, and Julia Schalin had 3 assists. Minnesota went 0-for-4 on the power play. That was the difference from Friday, when the power play scored 3 times. "The fact that we didn't give up and fold up our tent today was huge," May said.
The Gophers had been perfect coming into Saturday. Friday's win put them at 5-0-0 overall and 3-0-0 in the WCHA. After the split they are 5-1-0 and 3-1-0, and Ohio State is 7-1-0 overall and 5-1-0 in league play. That's a good weekend for Minnesota against the team at the top of the rankings, but the Buckeyes got the last word. Minnesota stays home to play Lindenwood on Oct. 22-23 at Ridder Arena.
